The Summer of Surprises
by firecracker7960
Summary: Harry has finally had enough, its time to take his future in his own hands, and he wants to live life to the fullest!
1. Chapter 1

Hey guys so new story Im trying out here, I have so many ideas in my head its hard to pick and stick with one! So just going to get this out of the way, I make NO money off this, I do not own harry potter though I wish I did. And last but not least REVIEW I love to hear your opinion on the story and how im doing, and they keep me motivated! Hope you guys enjoy and ill try to keep updating the story regularly! Thanks!

***Firecracker***

Harry woke up to his aunt rapping on his bedroom door "up!" she screeched, before going downstairs. Rolling over he stared at the peeling white paint of the ceiling for a moment trying to remember the pleasant dream he had been having. He was flying high above a mountain range, watching the sun set with beautiful colors of pink and orange. The wind in his wings ruffling his feathers as he dived and swooped into clouds without a care in the world. It was the best dream he had so far this summer, and not to mention the best sleep, a whole 6 hours without having a nightmare. Ever since Cedric died he hadn't slept more than 4 hours before waking up in a cold sweat.

Getting out of bed he quickly got dressed before heading down to make his relatives breakfast, his cow of an Uncle would be getting up soon and he knew that if he wanted to stay on his family's good side this summer then he had better hurry up and have breakfast ready before Uncle Vernon got downstairs. This summer had been different then the last. He was allowed to keep his trunk in his room, and so far his Uncle hadn't threatened to lock Hedwig up in the shed. Instead his relatives were treating him with an almost indifference, giving him a list of chores for the week, that before he would have gotten in a day.

While he welcomed the break from his normal routine, it put him on edge, waiting for the shoe to drop. The Dursley's couldn't be this nice forever, not without something in return, usually his misery. Quickly he finished frying everything up and putting in on the table, just in time for his Uncle to come thru the door. Grabbing a piece of toast he went outside to get the weeding done before the sun properly rose and started baking the garden, he was proud of number 4's garden as he had been taking care of it for years now. Aunt Petunia loved being able to brag about how well all of her plants were doing in her gardening club, always leaving out the small fact of who was actually tending the garden. Luckily this was a task he actually enjoyed, with the menial labor his thoughts could wander without actually having to worry about messing up.

Reflecting over his past 4 years at Hogwarts Harry could honestly say he was disappointed. Every year ended up with a stunt that almost cost him not only his life, but the lives of his friends, something that Harry would never risk. While not all of the incidents could have been avoided, they most definitely could have been handled better. Because of this sobering thought Harry had decided that this summer would be dedicated to improving his health and his body. He would sick of being the small scrawny kid in his year. He had spent the end of the school year researching different potions that would help him with this journey. Including multiple growth potions, a few to help his muscle mass increase, even one that would fix his eyesight! Luckily he had the foresight to send Hedwig off to get the few ingredients that he didn't already have before the term officially ended, so the day after Harry returned to number 4 he had everything he needed.

Once he finished the weeding he started stretching his muscles before taking off at a steady pace around the block. He had spent the past 4 years being chased by various things, next time it happened he wanted to be sure he could out run whatever it was. As the houses passed by him he also started to plan out the rest of the goals that he wanted to accomplish by the end of the summer. On top of the potions he had to brew, and adding running to his morning schedule, he also wanted to check out the Surrey library to improve his muggle subjects as well. While the Wizarding world did have their variety of subjects, things like how to write an essay were sadly not covered. He also planned to make a few trips into diagon alley so he could stock up at the book store with more advance topics, along with maybe a trip to knockturn alley. He was in need of wand that didn't have the trace on it, so he could practice during the summer. Harry was finally owning up to the fact that he had a crazy dark lord obsessed with him, and being subpar in his classes wasn't going to keep him alive for long. He clearly needed more advanced training, and he needed to get in shape, fast. Maybe he would ask Dumbledore for a few private lessons; I mean he wouldn't say no would he? Not if he wanted the boy-who-lived to stay living.

Seeing private drive in the distance he picked up his pace, sprinting the last 2 blocks to number 4 before taking a long drink from the hose outside, he took off his shirt and wiped the last of the sweat away before going inside to take a shower. With Uncle Vernon at work, Dudley off with his friends having what his parents thought was a tea party, which in Dudley s case means smoking and drinking in some houses that were empty, waiting to be sold. Aunt Petunia always went grocery shopping on Tuesdays by herself, she didn't trust Harry to get the right things for her family, and if he did she believed that he tampered with it in some way or another. So this left Harry with the house to himself, something that he enjoyed greatly. Taking at least a 20 min shower using all the hot water he wanted was heaven for his sore muscles. He quickly finished up and went to his room emptying out his trunk on the floor, it was time to make some changes.


	2. Chapter 2

Looking over all of his school things he decided to start with the easy things and separated his stuff out into piles, one for all of his school books over the past 4 years, another for the things he had that people could see, like his broomstick and photo album. Then the last pile had the things he couldn't let just anyone see, like his cloak and map. He shuddered just thinking of all the horrible things that could happen if they fell into the wrong hands. Lastly he had a pile of junk, old quills that tips were long since broken, random candy wrappers from the train rides, and even a few owl treats that looked well past their expiration dates, quickly taking the last pile and disposing of it he looked over what was left.

The cloak and map went back into his now clean and empty trunk, those he didn't want to worry about losing or the Dursley's ever seeing. He then sorted thru his clothes, seeing how many uniforms he had to replace, which hopefully by the end of the summer if all of his plans went right would be all of them, so he put those off to the side, they were still in good condition, maybe he could donate them to the second hand shop. Knowing that families like the Weasleys could really use clothes in that condition just strengthened that resolve knowing he could help at least someone out. He put the rest of his "public approved" things back in the trunk and took a look at the last pile. His school books, while Harry wasn't stupid, he surely wasn't top of his class, and he knew that he didn't put nearly as much effort into his school work as he could. No matter how good of an example that Hermione was, Harry had a tendency to do just enough to get by, then ended up playing chess with Ron, or going out and flying.

Harry sighed before organizing the books by year, if he wanted to make sure that he understood any advanced material that he may want, he had to have the basics down. So for the first 2 weeks of summer vacation Harry re read all of his school books in between his running and chores for the house. At the end of the 2 weeks Harry was pleasantly surprised, he didn't realize how much of the books they skipped over in class, there were so many spells that he didn't learn, that he started a list of the things he wanted to master, separating by year so he could get everything he wanted done. Potions was one of the harder ones, Snape was such a horrible teacher he couldn't imagine every actually liking the subject. But there were so many things you could do with them, so he decided to stock up on the ones he found interesting, bruise balms, dreamless sleep, and even calming solutions. When he was at private drive and not around a childish man who purposefully sabotaged his work Harry found out that he wasn't that bad at Potions.

Starting the growth Potions would be interesting, there were 4 that he had to take, one every week for a month. He would be starting that one tomorrow, he was almost done the one to help improve his muscle mass, that one had 2 potions he had to take, one every 2 weeks. Luckily the Potions didn't affect each other so he could have both of these done in a month. After that he planned on doing the one to cure his eye sight. This one was much more complicated and delicate, while he studied the brewing process for the past few days he knew that if he made a mistake he could melt his eyes was a very strong motivator to re-read the process a few more times, just to make sure he had it right. This one couldn't be mixed with any other potions so he would time it to be just right.

Harry was excited so far his summer was going exactly how he planned it, but knew that it couldn't stay that way for long. He spent the previous night trying to figure out how to continue in his studies without showing his "freakiness" to his relatives, he figured the best way to do this was to talk to his Aunt, she would be the only one he could convince to actually listen to him, without jumping straight to anger, well at least he hoped so. So Harry waited until the next day when his cousin and uncle were gone before approaching his aunt. She was in the kitchen sitting down with a cup of tea and reading the latest celebrity gossip magazines. She looked up as he walked in "what do you want?" she asked briskly. He quickly cleared his throat, " I have something I want to discuss with you Aunt Petunia before Dudley or Uncle Vernon come home. I know that you don't want anything to do with my school, or my world, so I wanted to talk to you about coming to an arrangement that you won't notice anything going on with me, and I can leave the family in peace this summer" he said quickly before she could interrupt him, seeing her raise her eyebrows he continued. " I plan on going out to London for quite a few outing and am finally making some changes to fix the defects in my appearance like my height. What I would like to propose is every weekend I will stay in London to not bother you guys. Then during the week I will do the regular chores around the house, but otherwise keep out of site in my room or out of the house period. If I do this and stay out of Uncle Vernon's way, I want to be able to have a full meal, not a tiny portion to make Dudley feel better, along with the opportunity to learn how to drive sometime over the summer."

His aunt stared at him for a few minutes, as if she was seeing him for the first time. "if you manage to actually stay out of trouble and keep the house up to the usual standards then maybe I'll teach you how to drive by the end of the summer. Meals as well will depend on how well your chores are done. Until then just stay out of sight!" Harry grinned and nearly skipped up the steps. For his aunt that was downright pleasant, and it meant that the first part of his plan was set. Now he just had to get to the alley.


	3. Chapter 3

Hey everyone, so today im just in the zone, this is my 3rd chapter today, im sorry about any grammar mistakes I don't currently have a beta. Still trying to figure out exactly where I want this story to go so sorry if it seems like its going a little slow. And of course reviews are very welcome!

Harry pulled the cap lower onto his forehead as he walked down the busy streets of diagon alley, the minister was still denying the return of old moldy shorts so people were still bustling around the shops, unaware of the danger they were currently in, he snorted, they were just a bunch of sheep. He walked up to the bank, nodding to the goblins that were stationed outside the doors, walking up to the nearest free goblin he asked in a low voice "I'd like to speak to someone about my vault, preferably in a more private area" The goblin didn't even look up from his ledger as he continued to write, " name?" "Harry Potter" he responded quickly. The goblin actually looked up for a moment, surprised, before going back to his writing "wait over there while I contact your manager". Harry moved over to the hard uncomfortable chairs mentally going over his list for the bank while he waited. He wanted to know why he has never had any sort of notification about his vaults, if anyone else may have had access, along with a total summary of his holdings. He was also told by Neville the previous years that the goblins would have a copy of his parents will, he was most anxious about this, he had never heard of his parents will, so he was a little nervous to know what their last wishes were.

Shortly his name was called and he followed a goblin down the corridor to a large office, "Hello Mr. Potter, my name is Regus and I'm your account manager. What can Gringotts help you with today?" "Yes, I would like a few things done. First is I would like to know what I currently hold with Gringotts, along with any past holding since my parents have passed, a copy of their will. Along with a few questions thrown in. Like can anyone access my vault if they have my key?" Harry sat in the much more comfortable chair while Regus murmured under his breath getting various paperwork out to handle all of Harry's concerns. Finally shuffling everything around and writing a few notes he finally grabbed a small bowl half filled with a swirling silver liquid and a short gold knife and placed it in front of him. "This is an inheritance test, you put 5 drops of blood in the bowl, when it's finished mixing the liquid will turn black and using a special quill it will tell us all of the vaults you have a claim to." Harry looked up confused "what do you mean claim to, I thought I only had my trust vault" "No Mr. Potter, your trust vault is just that, it's for you to use during your school years, you also have your 2 family vaults, and you may have the ability to claim others. A lot of family's have died out, leaving their vaults with no one to claim them, they go to the nearest living family, no matter how many far they are related. And most people do not come in to see what they can claim, so they lay and wait for someone to try and claim them, for instance you could end up claiming a vault that if from your let's say 7th cousin. There is probably a good chance someone else could also be related close enough to claim said vault but they don't come in to try. That means it goes to you by default, does that make sense?" " yes actually it does, thank you Regus" Glad that he knew what was going on, he quickly took the blade and made a small slice on his finger, after carefully putting 5 drops of blood in the bowl, he quickly wrapped his finger in his shirt to stop the bleeding while the liquid swirled around in a bright rainbow of colors, like it couldn't decide which color it wanted to stay on before finally turning black.

Regus put a oddly long bright green quill in the bowl it quickly absorbed the liquid before being placed on a blank piece of parchment, while the quill started writing Regus pulled out a few more pieces of parchment and cleared his throat. "here I have the last will that your parents made, roughly 2 months before their death, I will give this to you to look over while the test finishes and we can go over those as well, any questions you have I can answer after." Harry took the will and with a shaky breath looked over what his parent's last wishes were.

We James and Lily Potter, of sound mind and body, do declare this our last will and testament as witnessed by the goblins of Gringotts banks.

We leave our precious son in the event of our deaths to the following people;

Sirus Black

Remus Lupin

Andromeda Tonks

Minerva McGonagall

Frank and Alice Longbottom

Severus Snape

In no such case is Harry to ever be place with Lily's reaming family, her sister. The family does not accept magic and never will.

We would also like Harry to grow up in Potter Manor, or at least be comfortable enough in it to call it home. We would also like to state in our will that we names Peter Pettigrew as our secret keeper, if anything happens to us while we are hiding, he is responsible.

Everything that we own we leave to our son, and hope he is safe and happy. We love you more than life itself Harry and we will always be watching over you"

Harry dried his eyes after reading the short will, it answered some questions, but left so many more unanswered. He was glad that his parents never wanted him to go to the Dursleys, it seemed even in death they wanted to protect him, and he looked over the list again of people who were supposed to take him and started getting upset. Why wasn't he placed with any of these people, hell even Snape would have been a better guardian then the Dursleys were. Looking up to Regus he took a deep breath to control his anger and asked "who executed this will, and why was I specifically placed with the only family that is in the will not to go to?" Regus jotted down a few notes before growling out an answer "I do apologies Mr. Potter, whoever opened the will had it sealed again, it will take a few days to find out who sealed it, but I will most definitely look into the matter. However it seems the test is finished. Let's see what the results are"


	4. Chapter 4

AN-Ok everyone, so I'm definitely surprised, so far this story is passing my expectations, within 24 hours I've already gotten such great responses! So I wrote another chapter for you guys tonight, came a little slower than yesterday for sure, but I'm going to keep working on it! I doubt I'll be able to continue to post a few chapters a day, but I'd like to be able to at least do a few chapters a week. So let me know how you guys feel! Also going to do just a quick poll, can't quite decide who I want to pair Harry with, currently it's between

Nympadora Tonks

Luna Lovegood

Daphne Greengrass

If you guys have any other ideas that you would like to throw out there feel free to pm me! I'm always open to new ideas!

Regus grabbed the piece of parchment and quickly read over it, gasping as he read the names on the list. Harry started to squirm anxiously waiting to see what he could inherit. As Regus placed the parchment in from of him, he took a deep breath and looked down.

Inheritance Test Results

The Ancient and Noble House of Potter- by blood- paternal

Evans vault-by blood-maternal

The Ancient and Noble House of Black- by proxy

The Ancient and Noble House of Gryffindor- by blood- paternal

The Ancient and Noble House of Slytherin-by conquest

The Ancient and Noble House of Ravenclaw- by blood- maternal

The Ancient and Noble House of Perverell- by blood-paternal

Harry sat back blinking at the results, Potter family he could see, obviously he was a Potter, but the rest were certainly a surprise. "So my mother wasn't really a muggle born then? If she is my connection to the Ravenclaw family?" Harry asked Regus the confusion strong in his voice. "That is true, there are many supposable muggle borns that are actually from squib families, they follow the belief that they have no previous magic in their blood and don't bother to come and get tested to see otherwise, this feel out of practice about a hundred years or so ago." "So what does this all mean?" Harry asked. "Well Mr. Potter" Regus answered " The Potter family is straight forward, you have access to your trust vault until the age of 16, the age for heads of houses if they are the only remaining line, or you get emancipated. Then you can access your 2 family vaults. Your mother's personal vault you can view at any time now, she left no restrictions on it. The Black family you are proxy to, which means you can make decisions for that family when you turn 16 or get emancipated, until the current head of house says otherwise, he is currently Sirius Black in Azkaban, which given the information in the will we already have a goblin contacting the proper authorities to have Mr. Black cleared of all false charges, it looks like he wasn't given a trial either, so they will have plenty of paperwork for themselves here soon. Gryffindor and Ravenclaw are pretty self-explanatory; both sides of your family carried the blood of the founders, though they weren't aware of it. Too bad as you have a lot more leeway at the school being a founder's heir, and where you are heir to 3 of the 4, I bet the castle likes you, even before you found out. Am I correct?"

Harry thought about it, the staircases did tend to go to the places he wanted to go, without having to worry about them moving when he was on them (a horror story he heard too often of them moving right when you were late to a class) Not to mention his string of good luck there. There were too many instances that he could have died but didn't, was that Hogwarts trying to help him? He looked up as Regus cleared his throat and continued "as a founder's heir to 3 of the houses, after claiming them you will be able to communicate with Hogwarts herself after going onto the grounds wearing the rings of the families." Another goblin knocked on the door, quickly entering with a medium sized box that was placed on the desk, Harry wondered if the notes he was taking was some kind of communication device that they had, but this thought didn't last as Regus removed multiple smaller boxes from within. "The first ring you must put on his your heir Potter ring, this signifies that you will be the head of house once you come of age, this is the ring that will show whenever you would like them visible, next would be your heir Black ring, don't worry they will all go on the same finger, the magic will allow you to call with ever one you want to be visible. After that you can put on the 3 founders ring in which ever order. The Peverell ring will be last, this one is most interesting. It's not well known but Merlin was the originally Peverell line. You have become a very rich wizard Mr. Potter "

As Harry put the rings on his finger he felt a warm inside him, that he recognized as his magic it swirled and filled him with warmth as it accepted each ring, as he put the last one on, he felt almost if there were barriers in his mind and body that just disappeared. His faced registered brief surprise before he passed out right in Regus office. Regus just chuckled; this was one of his favorite parts, being able to uncover abilities that the wizard didn't know he had. Most of the abilities that came out in an inheritance test were rare, and Gringotts could always use some more rare talent.


	5. Chapter 45

Ok guys so im trying something a little new with this, so this is just a teaser for that chapter I'm currently working on, let me know what you guys think!

* * *

There was nothing but darkness surrounding him, he was floating but didn't know where or how, so he slowly fell back to the blissful state of unconsciousness. A little while longer he awoke to a few voices murmuring, sitting up and putting on his glasses he looked around confused, how did he manage to get to Hogwarts? He was just at the bank. Noticing he was awake the voices became louder as they neared. Two men and two women gathered around the foot of his bed, "who are you? And where is Madame Pomfrey?" They laughed quietly before the shorter man spoke up "we are your ancestors, the founders, while you are not Helga's heir, she would still like to meet the person who could help uncover her heir as well. So to introduce myself, my name is Godric, this surly fellow beside me Sal, over here is the beautiful Helga and of course my dear Row. We have brought you briefly into a sort of limbo. We have come here from the other side to be able to help you with your abilities and some of the things that are going to be expected of you being the head of so many important families. While your real body is indeed at Gringotts, your soul so to speak is here with us, and no worries, while you will be able to stay here for up to a year, no more than a minute will pass for your body." Godric grinned at Harry finishing his little speech, Harry then fainted again (in the most manly way possible of course) with the shock of the statement, the founders laughing then left their new charge to his rest, he was most definitely going to need it.


End file.
